About me
My name is Hope Aquilina and I’m currently a second-year English Language and Linguistics student at the University of Birmingham. In May 2023, I was offered the opportunity to work with the National Literacy Trust and Birmingham Stories as part of the CAL Collaborative Research Internship Scheme. My job was to attend, observe and support the charity’s literacy festival days which took place in various youth centres across the city. I also attended a community consultation meeting in the Library of Birmingham, where I networked with different people working within the charity. The internship lasted a total of six weeks, and, at the end, I wrote a report about literacy need in Wolverhampton to help the National Literacy Trust target its work towards communities that need it the most.
The internship
During my internship, I had the opportunity to participate in three literacy festival days in Sparkbrook, Kings Norton and Nechells. The main objective of these events was to promote reading in the local community, mainly targeting children aged 11 and above.
At the start of the festival days, we welcomed school parties, and the children completed various different creative workshops. The activities included drama sessions, cardboard mask-making, creative writing workshops and sports games, which were aimed at highlighting the benefits of reading and encouraging conversations about books. Once the school parties’ sessions were complete, we opened the doors to the public. Parents and children could participate in the activities and choose several free books, comics or magazines to take home with them.
One of the main highlights of these events was the presence of guest speakers, such as Birmingham’s previous poet laureate, spoken word poets and writers from the surrounding area. The guest speakers provided the children with engaging and inspiring stories about the impact reading has had on them and how they got into their chosen careers.
Outside of the festival days, I also produced a series of recordings for the National Literacy Trust’s website. I recorded five valuable ‘talking tips’ aimed at promoting language acquisition in young babies. The tips were carefully crafted to promote face-to-face interaction, support early language development and foster a strong parent-child bond. I found it fulfilling to know the impact that my recordings could have on parents and carers across the country.
I was also assigned the task of writing a comprehensive report on literacy need in Wolverhampton. This involved collecting statistics about children’s development at different stages and comparing Wolverhampton’s results with those of other regions in the West Midlands. For example, I completed a demographic overview and compared the percentage of children reaching a good level of development (GLD) by the age of 5. I also looked at the percentage of children passing the phonics screening check, the number of children reaching the ‘expected level’ for literacy at Key Stage 1 (KS1) and Key stage 2 (KS2) and GCSE results. This allowed me to compare Wolverhampton’s results with national and regional averages and provide informed recommendations for further action.
Overall, I found the collaborative research internship to be incredibly interesting and rewarding. It allowed me to work directly with youth centres across the city and help promote reading in areas with low literary engagement. This internship has provided me with an understanding of the importance of literacy on young children’s development and has strengthened my commitment to advocate for accessible education and literacy support for all.
Hope Aquilina, BA English Language and Linguistics